Teammates John Alley, Bryce Church, Gerrit Church, Adam Hartnagel, Mark Murray, and Zain Nizam gave MPH what is its first sectional golf title in memory. Coach Will O’Malley called it “a huge accomplishment,” reporting that John, Mark, and Gerrit each earned a spot in Thursday’s first round of the state qualifier at Colgate University.

The team‘s sectional championship came on the heels of another amazing win just days earlier, when the boys won the first annual league tournament, played Saturday at the Pompey Club. Bryce, Gerrit, Mark, and John played the league tournament. Gerrit, Mark, and John made the all-tournament team and Gerrit, with a score of 77, was the individual winner or medalist.

Back-to-back championship victories – an impressive finish to the season! 

Squid members (l to r) Max Calkin, Noah Kellman ’09, and Conor Szymanski

 In celebration of its 10^th annual Jazz Fest, Manlius Pebble Hill School is offering Central New York music lovers FREE admission to this year’s event. Jazz Fest 10 will be held in the School’s Coville Theater, 5300 Jamesville Rd. in DeWitt, from 3 to 5 p.m., Sunday June 2.

Eric Cohen, WAER music director and host of “Afternoon Jazz,” returns to emcee Jazz Fest. Cohen has been master of ceremonies for all but two of Manlius Pebble Hill’s spring jazz productions. Headlining this year’s program is Squid, the New York City-based trio whose music – influenced by artists ranging from Deerhoof and The Bad Plus to Brad Mehldau and John Williams – combines elements of jazz, rock, and indie pop.

Noah Kellman, Squid’s pianist and the composer of the band’s largely original repertoire, is a 2009 graduate of Manlius Pebble Hill and a former fellow at the prestigious Brubeck Institute at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif. The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers has presented Kellman with two ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Awards for his compositions, “Get Lost, and “The Piemaker.” Kellman and fellow Squid musicians Max Calkin on bass and Conor Szymanski on drums recently released their first CD, “Bigger Boxes.”

MPH student ensembles will also perform at Jazz Fest 10, along with the William Gorman Band, a local jazz group composed of students from other schools.

A reception in honor of these talented young musicians will be held immediately following Jazz Fest 10. The community is invited to attend.

In recognition of their achievements, the local SWE presents as many as five scholarships to Syracuse area women who are graduating from high school. The awards are based on transcripts, teacher recommendations, multiple written essays, and acceptance into an accredited college or university program that leads to a Bachelor’s degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. Vicky will be entering the freshman class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology next fall.

She will receive a $2,000 SWE scholarship at the organization’s annual scholarship presentation ceremony on Monday evening, May 20.

Olivia earned an invitation to compete in the ISEF last March when she won the top prize in the Senior Division of the 2013 Central New York Science and Engineering Fair. Her project on chemical reactions in fireflies — which also won the American Chemical Society Award, the U.S. Army Award, and the SUNY Oswego Genius Olympiad Award in the local contest – has taken her more than 2,000 miles to the world’s largest high school science competition. 

Olivia is one of the more than 1,500 high school students from 70 countries who are presenting their independent research in some 17 scientific disciplines.

Middle School dancers will perform dance pieces choreographed by adjunct performing arts teacher Hanni Schwarzlander. Upper School students, who have been studying the great dance companies and choreographers of the 19^th through 21^st centuries, will perform legacy or historical pieces.

“Deconstructing and learning historic original choreography helps students recognize and understand the unique styles originated by dance icons,” says Michele Koziara, chair of the Performing Arts Department.

For this year’s Repertory Dance Concert, students have studied works by José Limón, Jerome Robbins, Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, David Parsons, Lotte Goslar, George Balanchine, and Gower Champion.

Manlius Pebble Hill’s dance program provides dance instruction for students as young as four and offers classes for students through their senior year. The curriculum includes movement classes exploring multiple dance genres, improvisation, dance composition, dance history, and the elements of theatrical design and production. The MPH dance program helps foster students’ appreciation of high theatrical production values, an understanding of the message of movement, and a critical insight into the art of dance.

NYSSMA festivals are non-competitive events in which student musicians perform a selection from the NYSSMA manual and are evaluated by professional teacher-musicians. Strings teacher Janice Carr explains: “The students prepare and perform a solo or in a duo or small ensemble. They receive a rating or grade for their efforts. It is a wonderful goal for the students to work toward. The practice helps to build and refine playing technique and the performance is the artistic outcome.”

The MPH students who performed at NYSSMA span all three divisions. Instrumental teacher Joe Colombo reports that 10 of his students participated in the NYSSMA festival:

John Alley, Grade 11 trumpet

Anna Bender, Grade 5, flute

Meg Curtis, Grade 8, oboe

Jasmine Collins, Grade 8, alto saxophone

Maggie Dwyer Sexton, Grade 7, clarinet

Lilly Maresco, Grade 8, flute

Mary Morroco, Grade 10, flute

Cassie Pruitt, Grade 11, flute

Ayo Oguntola, Grade 6, trumpet

Jacob Roy, Grade 7, trombone

Eleven students of MPH vocal teacher Annmarie Gregory sang in the recent festival:

Alex Downey, Grade 11

Dorothea Hamblin, Grade 9

Nick Jerge, Grade 8

Kenna Kelley, Grade 7

Lydia Kelly, Grade 8

Julia Mettler-Grove, Grade 8

Mary Morocco, Grade 10

Matt Parker, Grade 11

Cole Potter, Grade 7

Jesse Sgambati, Grade 11

Hank Sheehan, Grade 10

Twenty-two MPH musicians who study with strings teacher Janice Carr also performed at the NYSSMA festival:

Fares Awa, Grade 8, viola,

Nathaniel Barton, Grade 8, cello,

Carl Beach, Grade 7, cello and piano

Chloe Daino, Grade 5, cello,

Grace del Pino, Grade 5, cello

Theodore Eckert-Budis, Grade 7, cello

Maxwell Fung, Grade 4, violin

Jeongyoon Han, Grade 8, violin

Kathryn Kovarik, Grade 9, violin

Hannah Lukow, Grade 11, cello

Ayo Oguntola, Grade 6, viola

Phillip Maier, Grade 11, violin

Joseph Marziale, Grade 6, cello

Emily Neuner, Grade 6, violin

Madison Neuner, Grade 6, violin

Trilok Reddy, Grade 8, violin

Lillian Stearns, Grade 5, violin,

KayLee Steiner, Grade 9, violin

Alexander Stoogenke, Grade 8, violin

Maya Taggart Geiss, Grade 4, violin

MP Taggart Geiss, Grade 6, cello

Annie Weiss, Grade 8, violin

Congratulations to each of these fine young musicians!

Produced in partnership with ARC of Onondaga County, the Redhouse show features professional and local actors paired on stage with actors with developmental and physical disabilities.

“Peter Pan” opens tonight at The Redhouse Arts Center, 201 S. West St., in Syracuse, and runs through Saturday, May 11.  Call 425-0405 or order tickets online.

A graduate of Bentley University and a world champion martial artist, David performs the role of the Exterminator Flyer in “Spider-Man.”

He is also a member of Team Sideswipe, a martial arts-based performance team that combines martial arts, dance, and acrobatics. He has worked previously with the Boston Celtics Dunk Team and “Power Rangers” and for clothier 3.1 Phillip Lim.

To the Editor:

I am heartened by the recent crescendo of opposition mounted by area public school teachers and parents to high-stakes accountability testing – a process that has redefined the purpose and delivery of education in public schools across the country.  These educators and parents understand that truly transformative learning experiences do not result from teaching to a test and I offer them my strong support in their effort to return classrooms to places where teachers can teach instead of cramming disconnected chunks of information into young heads for regurgitation on a standardized test.

As an independent school, Manlius Pebble Hill School is fortunate in not being subject to state mandates to administer high-stakes testing. Unlike some non-public schools in the Central New York region that have chosen to voluntarily administer standardized assessments, MPH stands firm against this misguided approach to education.

Students are cheated when they are treated as receptacles to be filled with test answers.  They develop into contributing citizens and leaders when their school’s curriculum emphasizes critical thinking and problem-solving skills; when they are encouraged to question; when they learn how to learn and are inspired by their teachers to embrace learning as a life-long pursuit.

Teaching to a standardized test does not accomplish these worthy and attainable outcomes and it baffles me that our public education system is willing – even eager – to yield that high ground to focus instead on standardized testing in the name of accountability.

Don’t get me wrong. I have taken my share of standardized tests that have served as gatekeepers to college, medical school, law school, and state licensure to practice law.  In a host of test prep courses, I poured facts and figures aplenty – I call them dots – into my head to later dump them out onto an answer sheet. It struck me then, as it certainly does now, that true learning is not evidenced by the number of dots one can successfully collect; rather, it inheres in one’s ability to connect those dots to extract deeper meaning and understanding. This is the essence of academic inquiry and exploration.

To my public school colleagues who are pushing back against high-stakes testing and to parents who are fed up with test preparation masquerading as educational excellence, I sit in the bleachers beside your field of battle cheering for you. 

Respectfully,   

D. Scott Wiggins, Head of School

MVP, an educational program of Vera House, is aimed at empowering young people to prevent or interrupt domestic and sexual violence and other forms of abuse. MPH students talked with Mr. Benny about the skills they have learned and about the impact of the MVP program.  The interview can be seen here.

In February, a number of MVP participants from MPH were  on hand when Vera House held a press conference in the Coville Theater to bring attention to “One Billion Rising,” a global event to raise awareness of the effort to end violence against women and girls.